Patience: “If something can’t be fixed, what good is it to be displeased?”
If there’s a remedy when trouble strikes,
What reason is there for dejection?
And if there is no help for it,
What use is there in being glum?
Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva
Patience
10.
If there’s a remedy when trouble strikes,
What reason is there for dejection?
And if there is no help for it,
What use is there in being glum?
Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
10.
If something can be fixed, what need
Is there to be displeased?
If something can’t be fixed, what good
Is it to be displeased?
Translated by David Karma Choephel
10.
If something can be remedied
Why be unhappy about it?
And if there is no remedy for it,
There is still no point in being unhappy.
Translated by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche
His Holiness the Dalai Lama comments:
“We should try never to let our happy frame of mind be disturbed. Whether we are suffering at present or have suffered in the past, there is no reason to be unhappy. If we can remedy it, why be unhappy? And if we cannot, what use is there in being depressed about it? That just adds more unhappiness and does no good at all.”
Shantideva (695–743). Indian Buddhist scholar and author of the The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara).
The Way of the Bodhisattva is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment and generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. The text has been studied, practiced, and expounded upon in an unbroken tradition for centuries, first in India, and later in Tibet. It outlines the path of the Bodhisattvas—those who renounce the peace of individual enlightenment and vow to work for the liberation of all beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake.
Bob Schwartz 